Ken Holland on the Wings, Now and Later

Ken Holland is on the phone from Kelowna, B.C., which is where Detroit coach Mike Babcock played junior hockey and which is not far from where Holland, the Red Wings' GM, grew up.

The Red Wings deserve a bit of a breather in this resort town after their most trying season in nearly two decades -- and after a clutch victory the night before at Calgary, with a Tomas Holmstrom deflection in the waning minutes giving Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Flames, the team breathing down the Red Wings' neck for the final playoff spot in the West. Calgary fell three points back with the loss.

"That was obviously a huge game," Holland, left, says. "We've got a cushion, but there are still a lot of games to go, a tough schedule as we finish the season, but (Monday) night was a real game to see where we're at."

Detroit needed to win in regulation for the three-point swing, but also because it evens up the head-to-head record between the Red Wings and Calgary. But as Holland noted in his chat with FanHouse Tuesday morning, if tie-breakers wind up determining any seedings, Detroit is likely to be out of luck, because the Red Wings have so many overtime losses (12) and far fewer wins than the teams ahead of them. Nashville, at No. 7, has one more point than Detroit (81 to 80), but the Predators have four more victories.

Strange times for the Red Wings, who rarely find themselves in a precarious spot until the playoffs arrive. Holland said the last time he can remember a final month this tense was in 1989, when Minnesota passed Detroit for the final spot in the last two weeks. That was the last time the Red Wings missed the playoffs.

The Red Wings have won the Stanley Cup four times since 1997, but with the advent of the salary cap, it has become harder to retain top talent -- one reason for Detroit's off year. The team elected not to re-sign Mikael Samuelsson, Marian Hossa departed for Chicago and Jiri Hudler accepted a two-year deal in Russia. That was an underrated loss for Detroit; as Holland points out, Hudler was a 57-point scorer last year as a 25-year-old.

There is potentially good news on that front for the Red Wings: Holland has had some talks with Hudler since he left, and Hudler's agent has told Holland that Hudler has an out of his contract with Moscow. Holland would very much like Hudler back in the fold, and the team even knows what he'll cost: his two-year arbitration deal, already agreed to, will be a $2.875 million cap hit.

Potential headaches never end for general managers, though. The Red Wings have a number of high-profile unrestricted free agents at the end of this season. Chief among them is future Hall of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom, who will be 40 in April, and Holmstrom, who is 37. Todd Bertuzzi, 35, is another, and so is Kirk Maltby, 37, along with forward Jason Williams and defenseman Andreas Lilja. Detroit has about $15-16 million worth of expiring contracts.

Holland says in no uncertain terms that he wants Holmstrom and, especially, team captain Lidstrom back.

"I met with Nick in early January and he wanted to wait until the end of the season to decide what he's going to do, to decide about playing next year," Holland says. "I don't know if I would trade Nick Lidstrom for any defenseman in the league, which sounds funny for a 40-year-old, but he's still eighth in the league in scoring by a defenseman and he plays a big role on the power play and the penalty kill. And Holmstrom is just a good player."

As for those who knock the team for being too old? That's becoming a cliche. "People have been saying we're old since 1999-2000," Holland says. "I don't think where we fit in the standings is a reflection on where Nick Lidstrom or Tomas Holmstrom's games are at. It's a reflection of all the injuries and the changes we've had to make with the roster turnover."
Detroit was hit with major injuries just four games into the season and nearly all of the Red Wings' sidelined players were significant pieces, particularly big scoring threat Johan Franzen, knocked out of action for four months by a knee injury. Since Franzen's return, the Red Wings are 7-2-2.

Franzen's return has kicked Pavel Datsyuk into high gear, too; the wing has seven goals and 12 points in those 11 games; Franzen has nine.

"You can either look at past seasons and past expectations and say that this has been a disappointing 60-plus games. Or you can look at it as we're second in the league in man games lost to injuries ... and we're in a playoff position." Holland looks at things like that and knows that his club isn't sinking into rebuild mode; his philosophy always is to mix in new and younger pieces, several a time, "so we don't go through a two-three-four year rebuilding mode at the bottom of the heap," he says. "That's my hope. But it's harder and harder to be an elite team in this league. You look at the top teams in the Western Conference and they're going to face the challenges we faced in '09 and that Pittsburgh will face. The salary cap is designed to create parity."

The bulk of Detroit's talent is still there, and with all the openings created by injuries, the team has found more, with Darren Helm taking on a bigger role, and Drew Miller and Patrick Eaves contributing a lot. Goaltender Jimmy Howard, who qualifies as a rookie though he's been up and back for several seasons, is the team MVP in many eyes.

"There are two ways you can look at this season," Holland says. "You can either look at past seasons and past expectations and say that this has been a disappointing 60-plus games. Or you can look at it as we're second in the league in man games lost to injuries, most to our best offensive players, and we're in a playoff position."

The Red Wings will draw 5,000 or so to their practice tomorrow in Kelowna, which will give them a nice off-day boost, and then they play the Oilers in Edmonton on Friday. If the team can more firmly nail down a playoff position, there are a few other bits of business, such as getting Chris Osgood time in net a few times. The two-time Stanley Cup winner has been an afterthought behind Howard this year, but the Red Wings well remember how Osgood, then a backup to Dominik Hasek, bailed the team out in 2008 with a sensational postseason.

There's potentially a big upside to the Red WIngs' travails. Eighth seeds who have to claw their way in are occasionally feistier than the top seeds, and eighth seeds who are actually talent-wise more like a four or five seed are particularly dangerous; see, Ducks, Anaheim, last year against San Jose. Holland also mentioned the 2006 Edmonton team that knocked off his own top-seeded Red Wings and went on to the Finals.

"There have been times in the past where we've been eliminated earlier than people thought and there was a feeling like we coasted to the finish line. Then it takes you a while to get revved up," Holland says. "We're playing playoff hockey now -- we have no choice. If we don't, we won't make it.

"If you get to the playoffs, you've got as good a chance as anyone. Obviously, we just want to get in, and right now, we've got to battle to do that. (Monday) night was a big step in the right direction. We've put ourselves in good position to have an opportunity."